Familiar Stranger
by Kathlyin
Summary: Vala accompanies Sam and Daniel to the bookstore and gets into an interesting conversation.


I do not own Stargate.

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><p>Vala was bored. Being in a bookstore wasn't her idea of good time but her two friends absolutely had to go there. She had insisted on coming with them when she had heard the word mall. Now she was regretting on not listening on the whole conversation. So there she was, bored out of her mind while her friends had the time of their lives. She was sure that she couldn't find a more boring place on the universe and she's been a lot of planets. Even the primitive ones were more fun than this bookstore.<p>

The bookstore was big. Vala Mal Doran, Samantha Carter and Daniel Jackson were on the back of the second floor of the shop. She had followed her friends into the science section. Unfortunately for Vala, there was was a distinct lack of victims. Sam had walked straight to the physics section. Daniel was always fun to torture, she was sure that even a Goa'uld attack couldn't draw his attention away from the book he had on his hands. There was also elderly couple but she didn't think bothering them would be much fun.

Vala was walking between bookshelves and found herself in history section. Looking around wondering if she could take a look inside one of the books without anyone noticing. She was curious what Daniel finds so interesting about the subject. She deemed it safe since Daniel was looking at language books and Sam already had a small pile physics books. She turned slightly to the sound of footsteps behind her. She had to take a second look at the attractive young man who had just walked over to her shelf. She couldn't help but wonder why he seemed so familiar. The sandy haired man couldn't be more than 20. She spied him taking a heavy book from the shelf. So far he hadn't looked directly at her direction, so she had to do something.

"Aren't you a little young to be reading book that size?" She couldn't help but ask. She was curious why would someone so young be reading biggest book in the store. He looked at her and she was startled by his blue eyes.

"I´m actually mature for my age. I guess you could say I´m older than I look like. What are you doing here? You don't exactly look at ease here. You have the same look as my friend Jon: bored out of your mind." Vala was surprised how well he was able to read her. She looked around but her friends were apparently had started competition who could find more books.

"I´m actually waiting for my friends. Back to my question why would you read book like that voluntarily? Does it have lots of pictures? Naked people?" She smirked and tried to get a good look at the book but he turned the book away from her.

"It´s an interesting book and I need it for my course." She was sure she's heard the word before but couldn't remember the context. "Course?" He looked at her weirdly but answered anyway "College course." At her blank look he elaborated. "College as in a school.." Finally hearing a familiar concept she smiled at him. "Right. I´m not from around here. Anyway I don't understand why would anyone want to study some really old rock with squiggles on it. Especially if there isn't a treasure involved." She could feel his measuring gaze. He seemed nice although she thought he should have some fun.

"It´s about the people. Our lives haven't changed much in thousands of years since we started farming. We get to work in the morning, get home at evening, spend time with our families in the meantime. We still have basicly the same problems as then: war, hunger, social classes. It's amazing how little and how much our lives have changed in few thousands of years. The biggest, maybe the only, change is the level of technology. What would we do without coffee maker with a timer? Which reminds me I need to meet my friends in couple of minutes actually. Jon will never let me live it down if I'm late again because of books. It was nice to meet you..?" At his queryinggaze she told her name in a slight daze. At his goodbye she waved to him and continued to stare at the direction where he had gone. She was startled when she heard a voice by her shoulder. "What are you looking at?" Vala turned to face Daniel. "There was this rather interesting young man here just a minute ago. I could've sworn he was a mini-you, Daniel.". Vala walked past Daniel to Sam who had been waiting them with a small pile of books at her hands. Since the mini-lecture she hadn't gotten over how Daniel-like the teen was. Everything from looks to hand gestures screamed Daniel. If she'd stayed a little longer she could have seem Daniel smile and say 'maybe because he was.'

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><p>The mini-lecture is from my point of view. This is excatly why I am so passionate about history.<p> 


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